Yes, read correctly. We do aim to fight chronic burning sensation in your mouth with chili peppers! Well, not chili peppers themselves, but their active compound capsaicin. As counterintuitive as it may seem, the very same molecule that causes the burning hot feeling after biting into a chili pepper can act to relieve pain at higher doses.
However, this approach relies on delivering high enough concentration of capsaicin directly to the area of the mouth where the pain is experienced. The challenge of this treatment strategy arises from the presence of saliva that easily washes the drug away form the mouth. To counteract this problem, we are developing sticky capsaicin microdroplets that can adhere to the oral mucosa and allow prolonged local release to maximise the pain relieving effect of capsaicin.
You can read more about our project here.